Padang, West Coast Sumatra, East Indies
[THROUGH the courtesy of Brother J. D. Gowell, the president of the East Michigan Conference, we are able to print the following letter from Brother R. W. Munson. It will be remembered that the support of Brother Munson in the field was provided by the Michigan Conference before it was divided.—ED.] FORT DE KOCK, March 4, 1903. DEAR BROTHER GOWELL: I have for some time been intending to write you a letter concerning the work, but each day has had its duties, and my nights I try to spend in sleep, in order to recuperate my wasted strength, lost at the time of my hemorrhage of the stomach last July. January 5 Sister Marcella Walker arrived at Padang, and she has been very busy most of the time since, particularly for the last six weeks. So many people call for her, that she can not answer all the calls. Dutch (Hollanders), Chinese, Malays, men and women, desire her attendance. Our Chinese helper, Timothy Tay, assists Miss Walker in giving treatments to men. He is very intelligent and clever, and he earnestly preaches the gospel wherever he has an opportunity to do so. Few people here will listen to the gospel. The Dutch are mostly skeptics, the Chinese are heathen, the Malays are Mohammedans. The first are totally indifferent to religion, and are absorbed in their personal ambitions; the second are straining after gain; the last are fanatical to an almost incredible degree. But all are sick more or less, and all are ready to listen to you if you possess the power to heal diseases. Through their bodies and their bodily afflictions we gain the mind, and through the mind we try to reach the soul—the heart—the man. The January, 1903, Life Boat had a striking illustration of how this worked in Mexico, as told in an article by Rev. Levi B. Salmans, M. D., a Methodist missionary of Guanajuato, Mexico. A fierce, fanatical spirit made work by ordinary evangelical missionary methods almost impossible, but medical missionary work completely revolutionized the feeling of the people toward the missionaries. One year on independence day they were shouting, “Death to the Protestants!” (and this had gone on for sixteen years); the next year, during which the medical mission work had made great progress, they cried, “Long live the Protestants!” Judging from what I have seen during the last six weeks, I think perhaps the same effect will be seen here. The outlook the past year has been discouraging, but it is much brighter now. Four or five Dutch families have begun to adopt health principles and a vegetarian diet. As they see the truth in health reform, they will be mentally in a far better condition to see the truth in all its bearings. Prejudice will melt away before the light of the sun of righteousness. One man (a Dutchman, really a Eurasian) had been suffering for three years with pains across the small of his back. He is a railway engineer—track engineer—and the doctors could not help him. In two weeks he was entirely freed from pain, and reduced in weight twenty pounds (he was too fleshy). His delight knows no bounds. He has given up the use of wine, beer, and liquors, and most of his tobacco (from forty cigars a day he has got down to five cigarettes, and intends to quit). One of the teachers in the public school suffered three years with thrush, diarrhoea, and dyspepsia, and in a few weeks after following my advice completely regained his health. I am giving him and his wife lessons in English. Both he and the engineer have been supplied with tracts on fundamental phases of present truth. A Christian family is coming rapidly under the influence of the truth, largely through medical work. The head of this family is a bookbinder, and is getting a printing press, and both he and his wife are honest in heart, and I am persuaded will eventually come into the light of present truth. My oldest boy is learning the bookbinder’s trade with this man. Some of the leading Malay men have called for Miss Walker, and we are hoping to plant the truth in their hearts, although we know they are Mohammedans. Yet God does rule, and can overrule so that these Malays can become Christians. At present the government allows no missionary work among them. We preach and teach in the Chinese quarter, and are most respectfully and kindly received by them, but so far not one of them has decided for Christ. We visit other towns, and sell tracts and preach, particularly at the big market places. My tracts on the Lord’s second and soon coming are being circulated as widely as possible (without wasting them) in this part of Sumatra. I have just sent to the press another tract, “The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan,” in which I show the origin of sin and Satan, the fall of the race into sin, and the way of redemption in Christ. I am to begin another to be printed in the Arabic characters, on the Lord’s second coming. The other one is in Malay, but in the Roman letters, that is, the letters we use in English. Very many of the Malays can not read that, and so I am preparing one that they can read. Below I give you Matt. 5:8, first in the Roman letters, then in the Arabic letters, so that you can see the difference:— “Berbahagialah segala orang jang soetji hatinja karena mareka-itoe akan memandang Allah.” Matioes v:8. The majority of the Malays who read can read only the latter. We are not allowed to undertake any aggressive Christian mission work among them, but we are allowed to sell tracts to them; therefore it is my purpose to prepare tracts that the millions can read, rather than the hundreds. In this way the warning message can be widely sounded among the Malays. Another reason why I wish a tract on the second advent, in the Arabic letters, is that the Mohammedans believe that the world will come to an end when Isa (Jesus) comes again. Their teachers say the time is already fulfilled, and it is only a question of days and years. He may come any day, they say. So you see that their minds are prepared to read a tract on the second advent, when they would read no other Christian book. My health, as well as that of my wife, seriously hampered us in our work during 1902, but we are gaining in strength, and mean, God willing, to stay in this field until the Lord comes. Sister Walker is a capable and efficient worker, and is a grand addition to our force. Pray for us, and pray the Lord to send a doctor and nurses to Singapore. This great field has a population of fifty million, and only one missionary and one nurse. Malaysia is four thousand miles long, two thousand wide, and this one lonely mission is like a dot on the map at the far western end of the archipelago. It might fittingly be called “The Lone Star Mission.” We are training our children for the work, and in the near future Miriam (fifteen years of age) and Melvin (fourteen years old) must go either to the Avondale school, Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia, or to the school at Berrien Springs. Mrs. Munson and the children unite in sending love to you and Sister Gowell and the children, and to all the brethren. Your brother in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,